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Home Assistant invites the quiet appliance to join another network
· New York time
Nabu Casa has launched the Home Assistant Connect Aux-2, a multifunction device intended to bring more non-smart devices into a smart home. Nabu Casa is the commercial side of the Open Home Foundation, which runs the Home Assistant platform. The device addresses a familiar problem for people building a connected home: not every useful appliance was designed to communicate with the rest of the house. Bringing an ordinary device into an automation setup can offer new possibilities without requiring its owner to replace it with a product sold as smart. That promise comes with a recognizable tradeoff. More connections can make a system more flexible, but the household also gains another box and another setup decision. Automation is supposed to reduce the number of things people have to manage. Getting there can require a person willing to manage the automation first. The Aux-2 is part of Home Assistant's effort to make its platform more approachable. Its appeal is not that a non-smart object was failing at its original job, but that its owner may want it to participate in a wider arrangement. The lamp has spent years performing the modest task of being a lamp. Now it has been invited to join a platform, coordinate with its neighbors and contribute to a vision of the connected home. At least nobody has asked it to update its résumé.
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